~ My dad used to call me Fart Blossom, too.

Serial Webfictions Worth Reading?

Hey. So. I want to talk about serial webfiction. Have you heard of this stuff? It’s like narrative webcomics, but without pictures. I know it exists, sort of vaguely. I mean my awareness, not its existence, is vague. I’m aware, for example, of Kip “not related” Manley’s awesome City of Roses, but only because of his presence in the comics community. That doesn’t make it any less awesome. It just means that I’m uninformed about serial webfiction. What else is out there? Are any of you hooked on an ongoing prose soap? Are any of you writing one? Use the comments to point me (and everybody else) to the good stuff!

This is the first I have come across anything like this. It caught my attention, because I had recently had a similar idea. I have a story that is half-done, and I thought it would be really cool to co-create a story with a community of readers. They can ask questions, make suggestions, offer edits or “chapters”…

I don’t know if this is quite the same thing as serial writing, but probably falls under this sort of category.

Has anyone been doing this sort of thing, with any success?

btw- as a lit major- most people do not know that authors like Dickens… they were NOT published all in one package. Many of their stories were published serially, in weekly ( monthly?) publications, magazines etc… and were later published as complete works. As such, you can sometimes see where a story has made a turn or shift. Those turns in character or plot, are often the result of reader feedback. So- we are not original, but stand on the shoulders of giants;)

Someone’s already posted the webfictionguide site which I believe is a good start. I’m currently writing one (started last fall) and am fairly late to the game (although I used to write fanfic and online many years ago).

The most successful example currently that I’m aware of is “Tales of MU” from Alexandra Erin. She has been writing for several years and she is truly writing serially, as opposed to writing novels and posting increments a bit at a time.

You’ll find that “webfiction” tends to blur the approaches in the sense that some people are trying to release bits and pieces of a complete work (to motivate you to buy their completed ebook) and some are truly writing with a deadline.

Going the route of weekly posting, btw, is sadistic, but I’m enjoying it. I’m not a full-time writer or artist, so this keeps me from totally slacking off. Anyways, it’s an interesting world, but one that I think doens’t have the support as much as it used to.

Back when fanfiction.net and livejournal were more viable, you saw a lot more serial writing happening. I’m finding though at the moment that a lot of my readers say they’ve never read anything this way before. Surprising considering that used to be the norm ten years ago

The idea of serials thrills me, ever since I read about Dickens releasing his books in serial form. Hence, I tried my hand at it (see chrisdickensstory.wordpress.com) but whether or not I’m having any success I don’t know 😛 I’m definitely going to check out the others mentioned in the post.

I think it’s a sign of an amateur writer that they release fresh material that is basically a first draft to their readership. Good writing needs shelf time and a series of rereads and edits to be anywhere near the standard deserving of an ongoing following. Just IMO, anyway.

I think there’s room for both kinds of posting — writing in public, vs. writing in private and releasing to the public — in the professional realm. Depends on the writer. Harlan Ellison used to famously write short stories in the windows of bookstores to show people that it wasn’t a mysterious process, and Robert Heinlein’s advice, even more famous, to “never revise what you write” and “immediately put it up for publication” is certainly in the spirit of immediate web posting. Examples don’t just come from genre sources. Kerouac, too, claimed never to revise. I’m not quoting those guys to say their way is the “right way” (I’m revising the bejeezus out of Snake Boy Loves Sky Prince), but just to point out that that way is one valid way. I think.

Meanwhile: I’m enjoying your superhero story tremendously, Wereviking, though I haven’t made it to the current posts yet (started at the beginning).,

I agree about the weekly postings keeping you active, I just started a blog here to write one because I thought that the pressure of a constant deadline would help me commit to actually writing stuff. I know a friend of mine had a decent following on fictionpress… I think. I’m not sure how people use it most of the time but I know she would put up parts of a book chapter by chapter as she wrote.